Press releases

The second phase of the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s internal review of disclosure is now well underway with more than twenty detailed reviews completed. The CCRC undertook in July 2018 to conduct a review of how disclosure had been handled by the police and the CPS in a specific sample of cases that the Commission … Read more >

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the drink driving conviction of William Smith to the County Court in Northern Ireland. Mr Smith was convicted in his absence at Belfast Magistrates Court in June 2011 in relation to a drink driving offence committed in July 2005. He was fined £400 and banned from driving for … Read more >

It is a stroke of good fortune for me that within a few months of my starting as Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission there should be two separate and independent accounts scrutinizing how the organisation does its job. One is the outcome of the Government’s Tailored Review of the CCRC which has looked … Read more >

Ismail Abdurahman was convicted in February 2008 of assisting an offender and failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. The charges related to the attack on the London underground on 21 July 2005 in which three devices were detonated but each failed to explode. Four men, Hussein Osman, Muktar Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi … Read more >

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the joint enterprise murder conviction of Andre Johnson-Haynes to the Court of Appeal. Mr Johnson-Haynes was one of seven defendants tried on the basis of joint enterprise for the murder of Shakilus Townsend in London in July 2008. All defendants pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court … Read more >

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the conviction of Sleman Shwaish to the Crown Court. Mr Shwaish, who is a Syrian Kurd, arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Turkey in December 2012. When he presented himself at Immigration Control he admitted that he did not have a passport and said he wished … Read more >

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the sexual offences conviction of Neil Secker to the Court of Appeal. Mr Secker appeared at Norfolk Crown Court in September 2016 charged with five counts of sexual assault against the same person. He pleaded not guilty to all. The jury acquitted him of the first two counts … Read more >

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Gordon Park’s murder conviction to the Court of Appeal. Gordon Park was convicted in January 2005 at Manchester Crown Court for the murder of his wife, Carol Park, 29 years after she went missing in the summer of 1976. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Carol Park’s body … Read more >

Here is the text of the speech given by CCRC Chair Richard Foster at UCL on 10th October. The speech was given by Mr Foster to mark the end of his ten year term as Chair of the Commission. The text here may vary slightly from that delivered to the audience.

Helen Pitcher has been appointed as the next Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The appointment, for a period of three years beginning on 1st November 2018, was made by Her Majesty the Queen and announced to Parliament today by the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice. Mrs Pitcher will be … Read more >

Criminal Cases Review Commission

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is the independent public body set up to investigate possible miscarriages of justice. The Commission assesses whether convictions or sentences should be referred to a court of appeal.